Episode 0 : About your Host Manasa Chepuri

The Real Path to BYOB(Be your own Boss)

Hey, Welcome to the very first episode of the Real path to BYOB.

In this episode, I want to share a little bit about myself to give you a better idea about who I am and what prompted me to start this podcast.

I am a computer engineer - came to the USA in 2008 to get my Masters in Electrical and computer engineering, this was the time when I learned not just the technical stuff in grad school but about life - being independent, paying bills.

I guess some of you all listening can relate to this the first time out of the house and country and you are becoming super responsible, working a part-time job, hustling through course work, and managing everything without family around -definitely a huge learning curve on being independent. After grad school, I landed my first job opportunity in Austin and stayed back in The silicon hills area which is what it's called because of all the tech companies. The bay area is referred to by silicon valley and Austin is here is called Silicon hills.

After grad school - Switching from a part-time job in grad school to a full-time cushy job felt great !!! My job helped me - pay off student loans, get my first car, my first new home - omg what a wonderful feeling, couldn't have been possible without having a job.

Over the years, I must admit I definitely loved the pay raises and started raising my standard of living- more spending, more traveling until it struck me that I am now more dependent on my job than ever -that idea doesn’t sit well with me.

For instance, just as an example - as a student when I first came -I needed less than a 1000$ a month to get buy and had minimum necessities but now with a house mortgage, car, subscriptions, etc --- my bills are so much more which make me more dependent on my job than ever. So, I just feel like I have golden handcuffs. Now you might be wondering- golden handcuff? why and what does that mean

Handcuffs typically signify bondage which to me is the dependency of someone on a job to earn their living, and I have come to think of my job as golden handcuffs because my job owns my time. It sure pays me well but my whole life revolves around it - starting from when I wake up to plan my vacations, spend time with family, - you name it, everything revolves around the job

Time is the most precious commodity, time is life!!! being a math nerd - when I looked at how my time was used - this is what I figured- out of 24 hrs - if I spend 8 hrs (optimal scenario) -12 hrs that translates roughly to 33 to 50% of my time , in other words, my life Since time is life

It almost feels like I worked hard my whole life for good grades in schools and ended up here only to be trade-off time for a paycheck. I like my job and enjoy working but I don’t like the dependency on it, I don’t want to wait till 65 to retire and then own my time.

I definitely want more control over my time and I want it sooner than later - the answer to this was financial freedom. Financial freedom is when one doesn’t have to trade time to make a living or when one has enough passive income to meet their living expenses.So financial freedom through passive income was my answer.

This prompted me to start looking at other ways I can replace my income - I dabbled with stocks first- took a course on day trading, swing trading- and looking at patterns - the volatility of the markets stressed me out and this didn't seem like a good way for me to make income, it still needed my time and active focus.

I always had a passion for real estate, loved looking at flips, new homes, design, and investing. I started reading and educating myself more about real estate and whenever I had free time would endlessly browse for investment properties like an addiction- soon I invested in Single-family homes, got my realtor license, and wanted to diversify more and that'